Yvon Aigouy, 42 years of service: the life of a volunteer firefighter between dedication and sacrifices

Yvon Aigouy saluted by Colonel David Mercier during the Sainte-Barbe ceremony. AD

Comme Yvon Aigouy, Patrick Bertrand a lui aussi été salué pour 42 ans de service. AD

Engagé à Millau en 1982, le sapeur-pompier millavois Yvon Aigouy a été décoré pour 42 ans de service lors de la dernière cérémonie de la Sainte-Barbe. Il raconte une vie au service des autres.

In the cohort of volunteer firefighters, there are not many who can prove 42 years of service. Saluted on the occasion of the last Sainte-Barbe ceremony in Millau, Yvon Aigouy is one of them.

Granted a helmet “symbolizing his career” and appointed to the rank of honorary lieutenant “for good and loyal services“, the pure Millavois sugar who fell into the pot on his 18th birthday, keeps in mind a life of dedication punctuated by good times, often, but also by more difficult times.

Because that is also the salt of the profession. The excitement of “going into the fire”, the long hours of guard duty, the rescues, the assistance to people which takes a preponderant place in the work of the firefighters, the support of the inhabitants, the bravery and the sense of duty in the shoulder strap.

“It was necessary to have arms”

He will have known the old Millau barracks moved since to the heights of the city of the glove to escape the floods. He remembers the siren that sounds, the worn-out equipment and the outdated materials inherited from the Great War.“I started on a GMC without power steering, a vehicle inherited from the war, far from modern equipment. It needed arms!”

Barely of age, he who tickles a few ribs during rugby matches with the SOM, enlists in 1982. The year of the great flood of the Tarn, renamed “flood of the century”with its maximum height of 9.20 m, still unmatched to this day. A strange baptism of fire.

“Unlike today, we didn't have any reinforcements at that time. And we can say it, the Millau firefighters were alone in managing this flood. The day before, a crazy wind had already put us in the bath. But we had to go, with mud up to our necks.” From the first interventions to the end of the cleanup, the chapter would last a month.

“The elders wanted to twist me”

However, it is not this episode that will remain engraved in the memory of the young sapper who passed through the'Army Unit belonging to the weapon of genius, the U.I.I.S.C.7 of Brignoles in the Var. The very one that could have made him leave the uniform. “Yes, it made me think… but not for very long!”He laughs about it today. “I was still in training. We went to a forest fire near Roubelier. There, I was given a Vermorel, a sprayer that is used to put out still-smoking stumps. Except that it leans strongly towards Roubelier!”

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A proper hazing – “the old guys wanted to twist me” – which would nevertheless end up convincing him at the cost of a few sacrifices and just as many renunciations. “You have to succeed in reconciling family life, professional life and life as a firefighter”, admits Yvon Aigouy. Not always easy. To give up on leaving was to take the risk of leaving friends behind: inconceivable.

“Today we have beeps, set up guard tours, but before, as soon as the siren sounded, you all landed and went. And as quickly as possible so as not to get your place in the first truck.” When the sense of duty finds in the search for adrenaline and team spirit a powerful engine.

“I think back to this little boy who died in my arms”

On a small A4 sheet, Yvon Aigouy lists his main interventions. The Pouncho forest fire in 1986, “a heartbreak for the people of Millau”, the fire at the Mostuéjouls castle in 1991 from which he emerged with a shoulder injury, or that of the Jonquet tannery four years later: “a part of the city's history that was burning before our eyes.”

With his team, the chief warrant officer also went on the trip to Noirmoutier after the Erika sank on December 12, 1999 off the coast of Brittany, then to the Landes after the Prestige sank in 2002. Each time, it was a Sisyphean task to clean up the beaches that were constantly covered in oil cakes. Demoralizing.

On September 21, 2001, he learned the news “at the station” before being sent to Toulouse after the explosion of the chemical plant AZF which would devastate the southern districts of the Ville Rose. There will finally be three days left: “you often know when you're leaving, but rarely when you're going to come back!”

With more than 2,200 annual interventions for the Millau rescue center alone, other “inter” will follow with more or less happy endings. The daily life of the firefighter, very often confronted with the intimacy, destitution and distress of the inhabitants.

“The hardest part is obviously everything that concerns children. I will never forget that little boy who died in my arms. One cannot help but wonder: could I have done more ? I was 20 years old.”

“On volunteering, things are not moving forward”

Clinging to his memories like to his marshal's baton, he hopes today that his example will resonate with the youngest in a corps that struggles to attract volunteers who nevertheless make up the vast majority of operational teams. Reassuring those who, in exchange for a meager allowance – they are paid €8.61 per hour – ask to be more considered.

In 2023, according to the National Federation of Firefighters, volunteers still represented 79% of the total workforce, but the number of new recruits has fallen by 20% in ten years.

“When I joined 42 years ago, volunteer firefighters already represented the backbone of emergency services in France, but the lack of recognition and recruitment difficulties persisted. After the first major firefighter demonstration in Paris in 1990, where I was, Colonel Janvier, president of the National Federation of Firefighters, assured us: there will be 300,000 of you firefighters by the year 2000. There are fewer than 200,000 of us today, while the population continues to grow. Look for the mistake!”

Freed from the weight of command, the young retiree goes even further. “We have to admit that things are not moving forward. For 30 years I have been hearing the same speeches about volunteers, about the need to promote and encourage volunteering, but nothing is moving. For me, it will not change anything, but I am now certain that for things to finally move forward, it is imperative to give the volunteers themselves a voice. They are best placed to transform speeches into concrete actions.” A burning plea for his brothers in arms whom he leaves with a little pang in his heart but a lot of gratitude.